I remember the latter days of my university days as an undergraduate at the University of Lagos. As aspiring engineers, my colleagues and I always dreamt of the best paying jobs which as you would imagine were in the oil business sector. We gossiped about how certain few people landed jobs with the Seven Sister oil companies and we determined in our minds that it was the true definition of being successful. Other considerable jobs were in IT, Telecommunications and Banking. Most of us were naive and didn't have the right mindset of the real world we were about to get into. We knew little or nothing about how the job market works. In my experience with diverse labour markets, especially during times like this where there is a global economic adjustment to climate change and jobs are becoming a lot more competitive, I think I might have some useful inspiration to share with emerging youths. To do this, I would like to touch on 3 mains areas.
Recruitment
In a nutshell, jobs are created when projects are (set) in motion. Filling a position for a job requires a recruitment process or competition (according to labour rules) and a hiring process. I don't work in Human Resources but since I am always in the habit of entering other people's shoes, I can imagine talent recruitment and hiring, these days, could be quite challenging.
Projects have roles and positions that need to be filled and a job simply translates to an essential role that is not designed to be fully automated. This means that a job is created when an employer identifies a need to have a person perform a project task that can not be carried out without human influence or intelligence, and is willing to pay some money to have such position occupied. This is why it becomes an 'occupation' for the employee after successful hiring. In essence, this means that the employee will be engaged in that role, for those working hours, for as long as the project progresses, to the benefit of the employer and as well as the employee.
After an employer has determined that there is a vacancy existing or projected, the first step is to consult with HR to develop recruitment strategies to attract the best fit for the position. This is usually apparent in a detailed job description.
Employers will like to first assess candidates' competence through their Resume and attempt to use any means to verify any mentioned skills they find matches their interest as declared in the job description. Although, the probability of conducting a standard and successful competition for a position increases with the number of applications received, there are only so many Resumes a recruiting officer can go through within a recruitment period.
There are existing Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that some companies and organizations use in a generic fashion of screening resumes by using automated search methods to 'sniff-out' desired keywords suggested in the job description. Job hunters in advanced labour markets are aware of these systems and this awareness could threaten the relevance of ATS in Resume sorting processes, since candidates now tailor their Resumes to almost perfectly match the job description (developing parts of the world might still find such systems useful). This conundrum could force recruiters to furthermore use other keyword criteria that don't directly relate to the job description. These keywords are usually termed as 'assets' and could have the potential of cutting down a heavy list to one that could probably be assessed thoroughly. From the perspective of a job applicant this might not be fair practice, however I think it's a fair decision in reality if we consider the position of the recruiter properly. Deeper dynamics in the functionalities of ATS can be explored but the overall objective of a recruiter is to select successful candidates to schedule an interview with. One secret to getting past the back-and-forth of tracking systems is to find smart ways to follow-up directly with the recruiters. This also actually makes the recruiters' job a lot easier in selecting candidates as it shows commitment and lower risk of chasing after 'ghost' applicants. Another quick route is by networking with people already in the hiring organization or connected people.
Resumes
Looking for a meaningful job is a job on its own and every job, whether paid or not, comes with its learning experience. Explaining the concept of recruitment first was intended to give an idea of what resumes are about and how job-seekers need to put those things in mind while writing their resumes. Resumes are like digital forerunners that go forth to represent applicants in order to facilitate an invite for an interview. There is no one ultimate resume template. The layout just needs to be well organized and the content should take cognizance of the job description. For small companies where ATS systems are not being used to assess and screen resumes, human recruiters actually read through submitted resumes (even if not all). In every case, it is safer to assume that your resume will be read by a human rather than just rely on satisfying the keyword requirements the ATS 'sniffers' attend to. So, to ensure that a human recruiter is willing to spend some minutes to go through your resume after taking a first glance, the layout needs to be attractive.
There are more than a thousand ways to design and redesign your CV, however, some sections of the content must always be present. Your name, means of contact, skills, experience (if any) and education are pretty much standard sections. The ordering of the sections is dependant on the type of labour market in terms of location (country) and employer's work culture (such as whether skill-based or knowledge-based). This makes it difficult to have just one CV. A general approach I use is to strategically consult with Google (Images search) for several resume formats to look through in order to have an idea of the resume templates in that labour market, then work on ways to improve on them.
When writing or designing a resume, it is important to make it a reflection of who you really are because a pretty but falsely representing resume can embarrass a candidate during an interview since that's what they are judged by. Interviews are like school examinations and your resume is the main course material that will be used to assess candidates. So, it's important to read and study your resume before the interview.
Interviews
Most times, hearing candidates talk about their skills and accomplishments in person, say during an interview, carries more weight than just reading their Resume profile and hiring managers (which are different from the recruiters) need to be present to hear directly from the candidates to validate the authenticity of their self-appraisal (as suggested in their submitted credentials). Moreover, the hiring manager is the person that is, of course, hiring for a team he or she will be managing so they will like to meet their prospective team mates before the hire. In a corporate interview, the hiring manager is basically just looking at your attitude and evaluating how well you respond to and communicate issues. Many times, candidates think interviews are all about technical and educational assessment. Yes, it involves some IQ assessment but the EQ (Emotional (intelligence) Quotient) is just as important as well. When attending an interview, it's more beneficial for candidates to worry less about demonstrating technical competence that your resume already represents, and to focus on other things like appearance and work environment ethics. Good thing is, they are simpler to practice to perfection.
This doesn't mean that following such strategic steps to getting a job guarantees placement. Recruiters and Hiring managers are human beings like you and I, and as it is with our breed, we are not always rational. But that's nothing to worry about, because if one really merits a job, then it means they can take advantage of their skills and competence by hiring themselves to be entrepreneurs if employers are unable to recognize their value.
In every case, job-seeking or job-hunting is meant to be a challenging process that forces one to learn about how things play out in the real world, outside school. Whether it gets you the job you want or not, the experience is always rewarding and it can only make you a better person.
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